I was born May 4, 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri at Trinity Lutheran Hospital, the third child of parents Joe & Jinny (Joe Wirt and Virginia Lucille (Jones) Fowler), joining brother Jon Herbert and sister Nona Jo.

We lived in Kansas City until 1958 when the family moved to Raytown, Missouri.  I attended schools in Raytown, graduating from Raytown South High School 1968, and started work at the Lees Summit Works of Western Electric the next few months. I was encouraged to start  college at Central Missouri State in Warrensburg, Missouri, and did so for one year.  The courses were excellent, as were my grades, but the social life at CMS was non-existent and I was very lonely. The next year, I transferred to Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Missouri, in part for the better social aspect but also to pursue a degree in Biology.  Tough courses, in which only the illustration assignments prevented my flunking the course, led to the change of degree to fine arts. During this period the entire country was very angry and confused, with the Vietnam war dramatically changing the plans and lives of many young people.  A monstrous whirlpool was pulling us all into this awful war at a terrifying pace.

I managed to graduate in 1973 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree, which is only a step toward a master’s program and maybe a teaching job.  Meanwhile, Joe & Jinny had retired, the house in Raytown the nursing home business sold, and they had moved to the Lake of the Ozarks to live in their new home which had been built over time during weekend trips and with an abundance of family participation.  All according to plan.

After college graduation in May, there soon was a period of grieving for the family, as Jinny lost her battle with cancer in July of 1973.  The lake house dream home lost it’s essence. 

My interest in further college and careers ceased to be, as well.  Much later I did earn a Bachelor in Business Administration degree via night school which did allow for career advancement at AT&T, but the bachelor degree process made me a bachelor again.  Such is life.

In early 1974, I departed an uncomfortable Missouri for points west and began a journey to as far as it took to find something.  I stopped in Denver to visit old friends. A few days in Colorado calmed the ambition to get to Australia, or wherever, and the anchor was dropped. 

So in the year 2014, after 40 years in Colorado, two marriages and two children, I live comfortably with my wife, Cindy, in Littleton.  Over the years, I’ve been a starving artist, a tomato farmer, an auto parts store owner, a factory worker, an education & training developer, an offer advocate, a proposal writer, a community college advisor/instructor, a custom picture framer shop owner, and a vacuum cleaner service technician.  Since I care more for rainbows than investments, I am not burdened by wealth but blessed with what I need. So, this has become my daily prayer; Thank you, Lord, for plenty!

I’m retired now but busy with projects involving home improvement, historical research, visual arts, communication technologies, chihuahua ranching, and vintage motorcycle restorations.  I have a passion for fixing stuff like old cars and motorcycles, and for antique technologies of all sorts.

Many of my projects are outlined on the following web page, which also has a family history and information section with lots of pictures and written memoirs - please visit and enjoy:

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